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GABAergic Interneurons are Required for Generation of Slow CA1 Oscillation in Rat Hippocampus

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Abstract

Neuronal oscillations are fundamental to hippocampal function. It has been shown that GABAergic interneurons make an important contribution to hippocampal oscillations, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood. Here, using whole-cell recording in the complete hippocampal formation isolated from rats at postnatal days 14–18, we showed that GABAA receptor-mediated activity enhanced the generation of slow CA1 oscillations. In vitro, slow oscillations (0.5–1.5 Hz) were generated in CA1 neurons, and they consisted primarily of excitatory rather than inhibitory membrane-potential changes. These oscillations were greatly reduced by blocking GABAA receptor-mediated activity with bicuculline and were enhanced by increasing such activity with midazolam, suggesting that interneurons are required for oscillation generation. Consistently, CA1 fast-spiking interneurons were found to generate action potentials usually preceding those in CA1 pyramidal cells. These findings indicate a GABAA receptor-based mechanism for the generation of the slow CA1 oscillation in the hippocampus.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91132711; 30970960; 31471078), a Key Scientific Project of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, China (15JC1400102), and the Shanghai Pu-Jiang Program, China (08PJ14044).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Institute and Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics of The Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

      Yuan Xu, Lidan Wang, Yu-zhang Liu, Yan Yang, Xiaolin Xue & Zhiru Wang

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    1. Yuan Xu
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    2. Lidan Wang
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    3. Yu-zhang Liu
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    4. Yan Yang
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    5. Xiaolin Xue
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    6. Zhiru Wang
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    Correspondence to Zhiru Wang.

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    Yuan Xu and Lidan Wang have contributed equally to this work.

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    Xu, Y., Wang, L., Liu, Yz. et al. GABAergic Interneurons are Required for Generation of Slow CA1 Oscillation in Rat Hippocampus. Neurosci. Bull. 32, 363–373 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-016-0049-2

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-016-0049-2

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